Stanford Cardinal senior Teresa McWalters, who has finished third in the 5,000 at the NCAA Meet, is currently coming back from injury and looks for a big outdoor season.

I hear you go by T-Mac. How did this nickname come about?

(Laughs) Who told you that?

That would be Russell Brown.

(Laughs some more) Yeah, well I guess he calls me "T-Mac". It started my freshman year. I don't know when it came out, but it stuck when it did. I kind of fought it, but now everyone calls me "T-Mac" on the team, even my coaches sometimes.

So, what's that like to have a U.S. World Team member as a roommate (Brown)?

Yeah, I live with four incredible roommates: Lauren Jespersen, Arianna Lambie, Mike Garcia and Russell. Sometimes I just sit back and think about it. I sit back and think about what they've accomplished, Russell and Arianna specifically. I say, "wow, I'm pretty lucky!" And with Russell, there's never a dull moment, and rarely quiet moments too.

How is your running going right now?

My training right now is going really well, considering I'm not running. I got a stress fracture in my foot about 10 weeks ago. So, getting back into running on the elliptical, in the pool...I feel pretty fit. I've had success cross training in the past. Unfortunately I've had to come to grips with a lot of injuries over my five years here. I still haven't gotten on top of it, where I say, "I'm going to smart about it next time." A new variable comes in a changes it a little bit. It could be coaching changes...but it's my fault (laughs). The training has actually been going really well. So, we will see how it translates to running in a couple of weeks.

I know it's hard to say, but when are you looking to return to competition?

It a little hard to say at this point. I think there's no ideal scenario at this point, less of a miracle (laughs). We will shoot for the Cardinal Invite I think. And to make it to the championship season, I like to qualify for regionals at PAC 10s in the 5K I hope...and then get to nationals. Then, by that point, I'm pretty confident that I'll be ready to go. I wish we had a little more time once the season begins to get a few more faster times in. But when that doesn't happen, I'm excited about the challenge and the unbreakable nature of the whole thing. The whole, "this is it, give it everything you've got!" thing. This is my last year here and I want to go out with a bang. Yeah, I'm pumped!

You're not actually running right now, but you said you want to go out with a bang. Do you still have goals this season?

I always have goals. It's a combination of being firm set on my goals and being able to sit back and accept whatever happens. Like I said, dealing with a lot of injuries and disappointments, and when I'm not injured...struggling with iron, and bad racing. I think that all of that teaches all of us as runners to deal with adversity when it comes. That's why I do this sport. It tests all the limits of your mind and your body. Stepping up big is a challenge for the mind and body. I'm going take whatever happens, but I see my self achieving my goals.

Can you give me a history of these injuries?

Well, freshman year I had the same injury that I have now...in the other foot. A stress fracture. I think one of the curses of stay fit while you're cross training is when you are running, you try to jump back into it...well, I didn't know what I was doing. I was pumped that I was fit enough to race again. Coming back from that one too fast is what caused my second injury. Another stress fracture. That one put me out for a good chunk of time. That made me come to grips with my training and what I was doing. Just my mindset towards it and how to handle it. It kind of got me to get my act together and turn the tide a little bit. I realized this is what I want to take this seriously and if I want to go on, I can't be jumping back into this and be rash about my training, like I had before in high school and my freshman year. That changed the tide a little bit and I had a good string of running healthy. After that it was a question of managing things. I had low iron at one point. That's not considered an injury, but it's certainly as mentally draining as an injury. That was my sophomore year. Things amazingly turned around in time for nationals. That race in the 5K really turned into my favor. I ended up in third and I don't know how it happened. That was one of the highlights of my career. I went from not being able to run a 5K in under 17 minutes to nationals three weeks later. I don't think I could have been happier. After that I came down with another stress fracture, it wasn't quite a major injury. It was the week after regionals and I wanted to go for it, but decided to sit back and prepare for cross country. Cross country is a pretty important thing for all of us. That was a good decision I think. That was it for injuries until this one. Yeah, I've had a few.

What keeps you coming back?

Wow. Good question. I think there's no greater motivator than faith. I truly believed that I was going to come back. That got me through hours of cross training. Being alone while you're cross training, not with the team is the hardest part. Working hard and believing in myself and believing in God, those are the things that kept me going through it all. The team was always there to support me. They are an amazing group of girls. To be able to go back and feel that support from everyone has also helped me keep going. Combine that faith with the hard work ethic I think every distance runner at this level has, I think that was a key to it.

I hear you have a pretty cool dog, can you talk about it?

Auggie is a chocolate lab. I got him when I was in high school. I got him because my brother left the house for college and I was lonely. My parents finally let in and let me get a dog. I knew I could use him as training partner my junior and senior years in high school. He's great. So, my parents are on the pretense that after four years I would take him back. Now it's been four years and we have a house in Palo Alto with a big backyard. We are living such an incredible life. To have dinners with the team every week. Being together for five years, everyone is familiar with the dog. We keep running. We keep telling each other these are the best days of our lives. We are hoping they get better, but we appreciate them right now.

It's sounds like a great situation with a lot of positive energy.

Yeah, I think it feeds off itself. We all motivate each other in different ways. We're all different people and we all respect the differences about each other. It's a great group of people and it's only going to help us in the track season coming up.

Can you give me a crazy story from your running past?

I guess a good running adventure happened on New Years Eve my junior year. It really wasn't that crazy but all the other crazy running stories I've had usually end up with me getting hurt. I was with some teammates at the house of some other runners who lived in Woodside at the time, just hanging out and trying to think of something "crazy" to do to start off the new year. Some genius said: "hey! we're runners so let's go for a midnight run!" Sadly, that was the best idea anyone came up with so we all got up in whatever state we were in at that moment and took off running in the pitch black. Woodside is up in the hills around Stanford so when it's dark, it's dark. We couldn't see even a foot in front of us so we were running blind. We started hearing things behind us and realized something was following us. It freaked the heck out of me! What do you do? Turn back and face whatever it is, keep going like an idiot, or just sit there? Well, it turned out it was Gabe Jennings. That went over well!